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Daniel & Chris, it’s great to be able meet up for an interview and see what’s been going on in your career! Tell us where you are from, how you met and how you got into music?

Hey, thanks for having us!

We are based out of Minneapolis, MN in the USA. Chris and I have lived here for the majority of our lives, and became friends at an early age. We lived down the street from each other while we were in middle school and high school, and discovered dance music in our teenage years. We were fortunate that our entire group of friends embraced dance music before EDM became popular, so we had a good foundation and understanding of the roots of house and trance music before it exploded into mainstream culture.

I (Daniel) taught myself how to DJ about 12 years ago. After I got the hang of it, I showed Chris the tricks I had learned, and he picked it up quickly as well. For a while we focused mainly on DJing, playing the odd gigs here and there in Minneapolis. Then shortly after (about 6 years ago), we began to experiment with production. That’s where everything changed for us.

There is a long story behind this, but to sum it up – after college, I left the USA to live with DJ / Producer Andy Moor in the UK. While I was visiting, Andy taught me the tricks of the trade of production. He shared some of his production secrets, and was an inspiration in my creativity and confidence in the studio. When I returned, Chris was just finishing college, and we decided to take production seriously. We spent two years working on our sound, and at the end of 2013 we remixed London Grammar. The rest is pretty much history.

This is the first time we’ve featured Judah on EDM Charts. What track have you been most proud of the past 12 months, that you’ve produced and why?

Oh man, we would have to say that the remix we made of Clean Bandit & Jess Glynne – Real Love was probably a track that we are most proud of. It was a remix opportunity that was highly unlikely to succeed given our current underground status as musicians. The thing that made us most proud is how quickly and organically the remix came to be. It was a time where we were chaining our sound to represent our melodic taste that could work on a dance floor – a definite turning point in our production style and music career.

What is it like working with with one of the industry’s best labels: Anjunabeats?

Honestly, it’s fantastic. They have been so supportive of us over the past two years, and we haven’t even had an original single out with them yet. (Hopefully that will change soon, hehe.) The team behind the label really knows what they are doing, and they have a direct vision for where they are going. It’s nice to be apart of a label that is as prestigious as Anjuna, especially because our visions for the future are going in a similar direction.

Your remix of “Counting Down the Days” was featured on EDM Charts, Vol. 154 as the track of the summer. Describe the track, how it all came together and what inspired you to make it.

This remix was difficult. It was a true test of our production and creative skills. The vocal is beyond gorgeous, but it was hard for us to take it in a direction that fit our style. One of the brilliant aspects of Above & Beyond is they know how to write beautiful tracks that perfectly fit the vocalist they work with. So with that being said, it doesn’t leave remixers the easiest job of re-writing the track in a way that does justice to the original.

We sent in numerous versions that were rejected by Anjunabeats. None the less, they didn’t lose faith, and we didn’t give up. We ended up starting over multiple times during a period of 3 months. In the end, we stopped trying to give them what we thought they wanted, and produced a track that we wanted to play and hear live – something that we naturally enjoyed. Once we did that, we sent it in, and they loved it.

If you could work with one artist on a track, outside of the “EDM” genre AKA non DJ, who would you love to collaborate with and why?

Ludovico Einaudi – he is one of our biggest musical inspirations. We probably listen to him more than any other artist outside of dance music. He is one of the greatest modern composers of our time, and his music speaks on many different levels to a variety of people across the globe. He’s beyond fantastic.

What are some upcoming productions/projects you are working on?

Currently we are working on original content. This past year we have been discovering who we are stylistically as musicians. We love melodic content, but are obsessed with deep grooves, and funky basslines. So in terms of future productions, you can expect more like the style we have done for the Clean Bandit and Above & Beyond remixes – melodic, dance friendly music.

What’s your favorite venue you have performed at and why?

To be honest, we haven’t any shows outside of Minneapolis. Our favorite place we have played here, has been a rooftop party we play in the summer at Crave. It can be a lot of fun to play music under the stars.

What is your hottest track at the moment?

CamelPhat – Constellations [Spinnin Deep]

This track is just the perfect blend of house grooves, mixed with a simple driving melody. It’s beautiful and can work in a variety of situations. We played it live for the first time a couple weeks ago and it went down flawlessly. Highly recommend.

What is on your rider for live shows?

Haha, CDJs that aren’t broken is always a plus. But mainly just the usual, drinks, snacks, and tons of water. We aren’t too fussy.

Where can fans discover more about you and get your music?

Check out our social media pages. We post all of our updates, news, and upcoming gigs on Facebook and Twitter, photos on Instagram, and all of our DJ sets and music on SoundCloud.